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+--- Thread: Curious as to what it takes to become a certified sleep doc? (/Thread-Curious-as-to-what-it-takes-to-become-a-certified-sleep-doc)
Curious as to what it takes to become a certified sleep doc? - tedburnsIII - 06-25-2015
http://www.abim.org/certification/policies/imss/sleep.aspx#requirements
RE: Board Certification ABIM- Sleep Medicine - PaulaO2 - 06-25-2015
What was the purpose of the link? To share the information? It would help if you gave a little information other than just the link.
RE: Board Certification ABIM- Sleep Medicine - tedburnsIII - 06-25-2015
I would change the thread title (if I could) to: "Curious as to what it takes to become a certified sleep doc?"
RE: Curious as to what it takes to become a certified sleep doc? - PaulaO2 - 06-26-2015
I have the POW-uh!
RE: Curious as to what it takes to become a certified sleep doc? - AlanE - 06-26-2015
Moderator abuse!
RE: Curious as to what it takes to become a certified sleep doc? - justMongo - 06-26-2015
(06-26-2015, 03:14 PM)AlanE Wrote: Moderator abuse!
Then stop abusing the moderator.
![[Image: grilling.gif]](http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/images/smilies/grilling.gif)
RE: Curious as to what it takes to become a certified sleep doc? - DocWils - 06-26-2015
(06-25-2015, 03:38 PM)tedburnsIII Wrote: http://www.abim.org/certification/policies/imss/sleep.aspx#requirements
Ted, do you actually understand what that document means? It sets out a fairly rigorous set of requirements in order to get board certified in sleep medicine in the US. In fact, it is more rigorous than Switzerland's, since it requires you to complete your normal residency before embarking on the speciality, whereas here you can count your residency hours in pneumo and sleep toward the overall certification. That said, in the end, in both the US and Switzerland, it amounts to a good year to two years on top of the three you spend in internship and residency, and requires you first complete your Internal Medicine certifications, so that is another two years on top of that. All in all, from the time you start studying medicine until you are qualified and board certified in this speciality, you will have spent anywhere from seven to ten years of your life. During which you will have had to sit endless exams and certification courses as well as continuous recertification and training in all general branches of medicine, which you will be stuck doing anyway for the rest of your working life (CPD or CPE, depending on where you live). I would say that would inspire me to confidence that within their field, a board certified sleep doctor will know what he is talking about.
Now, admittedly, as an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon, and therefore a jock, I tend to look a bit down my nose at that branch (it's not rocket science like parts of my branch or like neuro, you see, nor do they save lives right on the table, so it is not sexy, and us cutters are snobs - sort of Jets/Sharks thing, you know) they are in fact stringently qualified medical professionals, giving their all to a rather narrow branch of medicine, meaning they have a very strong commitment to their craft, and are most worthy of respect for that. Moreover, within that branch some pretty cool and amazing things are coming out that show just how important proper sleep is to our daily health and our long term survival and quality of life. It impacts almost every aspect of our lives, something we really didn't think so much about even forty years ago. This is an important and fast maturing branch of medicine, and one that is saving lives, albeit in more subtle ways than some other branches do, where we have more spectacular wins, but one that is very important, all the same.
RE: Curious as to what it takes to become a certified sleep doc? - tedburnsIII - 06-26-2015
(Mod- Thanks for changing the thread title!)
Yeah, I posted the link because experience on various apnea forums leads me to conclude that board-certified sleep doctors are not accorded the respect and credibility they deserve. Ignorant people have no idea what they must go through to be certiifed, and they should be 'educated' about it.
Thanks for your comments, Doc!
RE: Curious as to what it takes to become a certified sleep doc? - DocWils - 06-26-2015
Ted, I think a lot of docs don't get the respect or credibility they deserve - Google doesn't help, either, because people are self diagnosing and coming in to the office with completely wrong ideas around 70% of the time. it takes a lot to sort out the technical information and understand it in a gestalt of the entire patient to arrive at any diagnosis, which is why all doctors must first go through every department, not only to figure out if they want to specialise or to gain experience of each branch should they require it in an emergency, but in order to get a holistic understanding of the body of medicine and the essential interrelatedness of the various bits. Googling a symptom doesn't allow for that. That said, it has helped in some cases.
But yeah, sleep docs don't get the respect they deserve on these forums, and to be honest, up until recently, they didn't get it in medicine either - some thought they were taking an easy way out or lacked the mental power to tackle tougher specialties, or some sort of mad monk group, vampires who like to hang around all night and stuff (or "hippies" as my old professor described them). It is only with the now proven effectiveness of treatments and the continuous stream of new discoveries coming out of that branch that impact on practically all other branches of medicine, especially cardiac medicine, neuro and endocrinology, that it has gained the grudging respect from the rest of us white coated snobs.
BTW, here in Switzerland they are generally sub-branches either of pulmonolgy or neurology, and often the two don't mix - there are two different sleep labs in my hospital, for instance, one in each department (and in different buildings a good fifteen to twenty minute walk apart).
RE: Curious as to what it takes to become a certified sleep doc? - Mark Douglas - 06-26-2015
No disrespect intended but were it not for google I would still be a zombie because the medicos sure as heck weren't helping!